Clinton, who met Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin and holds talks with leaders in Belfast on Monday, said the peace process on the island was a model for other world hot spots, but more work needed to be done. Fighting between pro-British and Irish nationalist groups killed 3,600 people before a 1998 peace deal that was followed by pledges by the main militant organisations on both sides including the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to disarm. "It will take the leaders of both communities working together ... to make day-to-day governing a reality and I am confident that is within reach," Clinton told a joint press conference with Cowen.
The fragile balance within the Belfast power-sharing executive that includes former IRA guerrillas and hardline pro-British leaders has been tested by tensions over the timing of devolving policing and justice powers from Westminster. "The step of devolution for policing and justice is an absolutely essential milestone," Clinton said. "Clearly, there are questions and some apprehensions but ... the parties understand this is a step they must take together."
The peace process got a further lift on Sunday as the paramilitary group the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) said it would end its violent activities.
"The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the Irish National Liberation Army that ... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over," Martin McMonagle, a spokesman for the INLA's political ally the Irish Republican Socialist Party, said at an event in Bray, a seaside resort south of Dublin.
Together with moves by pro-British militant groups earlier this year to disarm, the INLA announcement showed growing political stability, Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said.
